Sunday, June 18, 2006

Hakone

Last weekend I went to visit Tadahiro-san, a traveler with whom I shared the cabin last November in the boat from Vladivostok to Japan. He lives close to where I work, about 1 hour by train, so I finally managed to pay him a visit. We first went to Hakone, one of the three most popular weekend trips from Tokyo, besides Kamakura (pittoresque city with lots of temple) and Nikko (a lavish temple/mausoleum). Its main attraction is the fact that it is a active volcanous area. No eruptions though, but loads of warm water springs and sulphuric gasses coming out of the ground. Hakone also offers a splendid view on neighbouring Fuji-san, at least when you are lucky and the sky is not too cloudy. After this we went to the local museum, with a great collection of Japanese craft products, such as lacquerware (my favourite), bird cages, old man-carried vehicles and swords. Tadahiro-san had a nice surprise though, which was a samurai armour and helmet to wear! Especially the latter was much heavier than I would have thought! A nice photo opportunity of course.

We were quite lucky to have fairly nice weather on Saturday as Sunday was covered with rain. But this was no problem as we stayed in his house and chatted over various matters. My stay ended with a visit to the local onsen (warm water spring), while contempling the landscape, reminiscent of the Meditteranean! This is due to the fact that there are a lot of orange trees and that the mountainy cliffs dive quickly into the water.